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Kodiak Mountain Stone Education Meeting (October)

One of our team members from our Calgary store hosted our most resent Education Plan Meeting. This team member hasn’t been with us for too long and this was his first opportunity to host one of our meetings. He did a great job!

This meeting was a little different than previous meetings that we have had. Most of our meetings are based on a book that the person has read. The meeting is used to discuss the thoughts and ideas in the book and how we can implement them in our company and in our lives. This time the topic of the meeting was from a video rather than a book.

The video was a Ted Talk from Simon Sinek and I strongly recommend watching it here:

“In this Ted Talks video, Simon Sinek gives his views on why some organizations and leaders are able to inspire and become successful, while others are not, and why it’s important to get people to believe what you believe.

He makes you ask yourself questions like:

Why do we do what we do?

– and the obvious answer isn’t to turn a profit, that’s a result, and shouldn’t be a reason at all.

What he actually means is, What’s your purpose, what’s your cause, what’s your belief? Why does your company exist… why do you get out of bed every morning… why should anybody care

Simon explains in his lecture that the way we think, act, and communicate is from the outside in. We go from the clearest thing to the fuzziest. Every organization knows What they do… and some even know How they do it. But very few know Why they do what they do.

All the great and inspiring leaders and organizations of the world, whether it’s Apple, or Martin Luther King, or the Wright bros, all think, act, and communicate the exact same way. which is interesting because it’s the complete opposite to everyone else

How these people communicate their products, services or ideas to the world can be summed up into one simple idea to which Simon calls “The Golden Circle”.

On the outer circle is the What (what your product or service is), the next inside circle is the How (how your product/service or idea can benefit people), and the innermost circle is the Why.

Simon explains that most businesses communicate from the outer circle in. For example; Here’s our new car. It gets great gas mileage, has leather seats, great stereo. Buy our car. Or let’s use an example of Kodiak Mountain Stone. We manufacture indoor and outdoor stone. It’s lightweight, simple to install, inexpensive, and looks great. Buy our stone. That might be a good sales pitch, but it’s not very inspiring

All great organizations and leaders are able to inspire because they communicate the ‘Why’ first as their main focus. People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. You can have all the facts and figures, but if you’re selling the ‘what’ instead of the ‘why’ then people may be hesitant of purchasing your product or service because it just doesn’t feel right, because they don’t know your why. Inspiring customers is a great way to build trust relationships and trust.

So let’s change around our Kodiak Mountain Stone sales pitch to go from the inside out using the why first.

Your home is the single greatest investment you will ever own, and we want to be a part of making it the best it can look. Everyday we strive to make products that will beautify your home for years to come. Our stone is lightweight, easy to install, inexpensive, and it looks great. We are Kodiak Mountain Stone.

Changing your focus to the Why first can get people believing in what you do.

The goal is to not just sell people what you have, but for them to believe what you believe… because that will not only create customers and sales, but loyalty and repeat business.

This theory also can be applied to hiring employees. The goal is not just to hire people who need a job, but to hire people who believe what you believe. Simon also says If you hire people based on whether they can do a job, they’ll work for your money, but if you hire people because they believe what you believe, they’ll work for you with blood sweat and tears. There is actually a great example of this that Simon talks about in the video using the Wright brothers story….

So now I pose this question…

As a company, why do we do what we do?”

This was a great presentation with a great message. As I said earlier, I strongly recommend Simon’s video at the link provided above.